Spycraft - Melton [217]
After MKULTRA was approved by Dulles, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb reasonedthat any drugs or chemicals developed would be of limited value without a means of covertly administering them. Gottlieb contacted John Mulholland, one of America’s best-known and most respected magicians and an expert in sleight of hand, or “close-up” magic, for advice.17 His goal was to engage Mulholland to teach the techniques of magic, especially sleight of hand and misdirection, to case officers for delivering the MKULTRA “potions” to their targets.18
Mulholland agreed to Gottlieb’s request, and proposed an outline for a training manual that would include19:
• Background facts to correct erroneous facts about magic and enable a complete novice to “learn to do those things which are required.”
• Descriptions of the covert techniques necessary to “deliver” material [chemicals] in a solid, liquid, or gaseous form. Included would be explanations of the necessary skills and instruction on how to learn them.
• Examples and studies to explain how the techniques and mechanical aids could be employed in various operational circumstances.
Mulholland put the cost of the manual at $3,000 and agreed to write it in a manner to provide total secrecy.20 To protect against the manual falling into the wrong hands, no references were made to “agents” or “operatives”; the intelligence officers were to be called “performers” and covert actions would be referred to as “tricks.”21 His early draft of the manual contained five sections: (1) Underlying basis for the successful performance of tricks, (2) Background of the psychological principles by which they operate, (3) Tricks with loose solids, (4) Tricks with liquids, (5) Tricks by which small objects may be obtained secretly.
Mulholland noted: “As sections 2, 3, 4, and 5 were written solely for use by men working alone, the manual needed two further sections. One section would give modified tricks and techniques of performance to be performed by women and the other would describe tricks suitable for two or more people working in collaboration.”22
By the winter of 1954, the manuscript, titled “Some Operational Applications of the Art of Deception,” was complete.23 Mulholland wrote in the introduction: “The purpose of this paper is to instruct the reader so he may learn to perform a variety of acts secretly and undetectably. In short, here are instructions in deception.”24
With the first 100-page manual completed, Gottlieb invited Mulholland to work on a new project “on the application of the magician’s art to the covert communication of information.”25 The work “would involve the application of techniques and principles employed by magicians, mind readers, etc., to communicate information, and the development of new [non-electrical] techniques.”26
In 1956 Gottlieb proposed expanding the scope of Mulholland’s work “to make Mr. Mulholland available as a consultant on various problems, [for] TSS and otherwise, as they evolve. These problems concern the application of the magician’s technique to clandestine operations, such techniques to include surreptitious delivery of materials, deceptive movements and actions to cover normally prohibited activities, influencing choices and perceptions of other persons, various forms of disguise, covert signaling systems, etc.”27
Mulholland’s TSS work continued